Abstract:
Ferdinand, Duke of Orléans, is sent to Lyon to give food to the inhabitants after an insurrection. Another soldier is giving him butter and tells him, "Go and promise them what I am giving to you."
According to Delteil, there exists only one sample of this print. As can be noted we have traced 3 samples, one in Japan, one in the United States and one in the Dreyfus collection.
See also DR 31. Daumier is referring to a trip of the Duc d'Orléans to Lyon. The print shows the Duc d'Orléans on his trip to Lyon, (accompanied by Marshall Soult, not visible) holding a piece of butter hoping to calm down the uprising in Lyon. The reason for this uprising was the agreement between workers, the governor of Lyon and the industry owners on a new wage scale, which was immediately refused by the Paris Government. In November 1831 the first riots started in the streets of Lyon. A crock of butter is an allusion to the "buttering-up tactics" of the pear headed monarch. The French word "beurre" in slang also has the meaning of something unpleasant.